


The Sixth Dharma Invitational

by allfieldsrequired



Category: Lost
Genre: Big feelings, F/F, F/M, Found Family, I made myself sad, Post-Canon, i tagged the relationships but they're all minimal, it's after the main timeline and before the flashsideways, or during canon it's Lost you know what's up, there's also a Juliet/Sawyer mention, wholesome island content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:00:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28464957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allfieldsrequired/pseuds/allfieldsrequired
Summary: (Spoilers for the whole show.)Hugo organizes a golf tournament on the island every year. They're all invited. It takes a while but they *all* come.
Relationships: Kate Austen/Claire Littleton, Kate Austen/Jack Shephard
Comments: 7
Kudos: 14





	The Sixth Dharma Invitational

**Author's Note:**

> The idea of the "Dharma Invitational" comes from a fan's headcanon that was made canon by Damon Lindelof in this Q&A from 2 months ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AkqqS9dFDI (at 12:23). 
> 
> So yeah, all credit to them, I just loved the idea and wrote this.

It didn’t feel like three years had gone by, and yet. Hugo sat down and put his hands in the water. He sighed. The heart of the island didn’t look that bright in the middle of the day. It was just a warm glow, really. It didn’t look like something worth dying for. It had been three years already. He had been thinking about it all day. He had a calendar pinned to the wall in the kitchen, he crossed out a day everyday. It was important to keep track, it was so easy to lose the plot on the island.

That morning he had eaten breakfast with Walt, called Ben who was still abroad tying up some Dharma-Hanso loose ends (this thing was endless!), before doing his daily patrol. It was more of a walk really. He walked to the heart and was always back to the barracks for lunch. It seemed that that distance had been greater, a day’s trek maybe, but now it was just a long walk, just long enough to get lost in his thoughts for a little while. Much had changed, and most of it he could not explain. But people will get used to anything. About a month ago he had taken up the habit of listening to his IPod on the way back. He would never have done that, before. He would have been far too anxious. But no bears had been seen barreling through the jungle in three years, no boar had tried to gore him in three years, no black smoke had shaken the top of trees in three years.

After lunch, he walked to the golf course with Walt. Walt’s disposition was as sunny as usual. He had been on a good mood streak for months—ever since they had managed to put his dad’s soul (or whatever that had been) to rest. They played a hole and the kid made a jab at Hugo: “You’re off your game,  _ dude _ !”

Hugo smiled and laughed. “It’s that fish we had, dude. T’was probably… irradiated or something.” He tried to focus for the next hole. Truth was he couldn’t get his head in the game. He wasn’t sad, just… pensive as fuck.

“Do you think we could…” he began. “Nah. Never mind.”

“What’s wrong, Hugo?” Walt came to stand next to him. Hugo swore the kid could read his mind sometimes (even though they had determined that it was definitely  _ not  _ part of his particular skill set).

“I just miss them, I think.”

Walt put his arm around him and squeezed.

“You know...” he started.

“No,” Hugo interrupted. “No. They went through too much to get  _ off _ this d- this island.”

“The island they left was a different island,” Walt sighed and walked away to sink his ball.

He was right. Hugo felt it too. He had almost said “this damn island”, but it didn’t feel right. The island was still powerful and temperamental, but it wasn’t the same as before. It wasn’t hell anymore, it was just home. Hugo looked at the mountains surrounding them, trying to see them with his three-years-ago eyes, with his six-years-ago eyes, even. He simply couldn’t, could he? He had not felt it, it had happened gradually, but he had changed too. He was at home here.

*

He took a deep breath and slid the envelopes into the mailbox. The snow was swirling all around him. He couldn’t wait to leave New York, he hated this city. Too noisy and crazy. He wasn’t used to so much company anymore. Ben was waiting for him at JFK, they were leaving in a few hours. Who knew that taking care of the island would require him to spend so much time so far away from it? He stared at the mailbox. He hadn’t told Ben yet, they had come to the States on some other matter. Jesus Christ, was he already having regrets? Oh well, it’s not like he could take those letters back now. He walked away. No, he definitely didn’t regret it. He grinned to himself at the thought of what he had just done.

  
  
  


_ Hugo ‘Hurley’ Reyes, official caretaker of our mutual friend, would be delighted to see you attend the first ever _

_**DHARMA INVITATIONAL**. _

_ The golf tournament of your dreams! Competition! Fun! Drama! Reunion! All to be had under a beautiful Pacific sun! _

  
  


_ All participants are required to RSVP before April 30 _ _ th _ _. _

_ The organizer will provide all equipment (so no need to bring your own clubs, pals). _

_ The organizer will also provide transport from the Pacific port of your choice (preferably Guam these days, but subject to change) to the location of the tournament. _

  
  
  


*

“I told you they wouldn’t come,” Ben said. “It’s too soon.”

“It’s been three years,” Hugo whined.

“Three years is not a long time. They might never want to come back."

“Lapidus came!”

“Yes,” Ben shook his head. “But Lapidus doesn’t have so much… history… with this place.”

The first ever Dharma Invitational had four players. Frank Lapidus came second to last, beating Benjamin Linus. Hugo Reyes and Walter Lloyd tied for first place.

The second ever Dharma Invitational had five players. Miles Straume finished first, thus winning the five hundred dollars that him and second-time silver-medalist Frank Lapidus had bet. Lapidus had managed to get Miles to come by offering to bet on the tournament (all of it Ben’s suggestion, but that was between Frank and Ben). Walter Lloyd got third place, Hugo Reyes forth, Benjamin Linus last.

  
  


“Do I even want them to come if I’m just gonna lose to them?” Hugo cried out at the dinner table the day after Miles and Frank left.

“Excuse me?” Ben cried out in turn. “ _ I _ am the loser here!”

Hugo groaned and grinned behind his hand.

*

Florida wasn’t so bad. Hugo didn’t get what all the hate was about. It was hot and humid, a bit like the island. But the quality of the light was different here. The Phillips house was so white it almost blinded him. Freshly re-painted, no doubt. He couldn’t imagine Sawyer on a ladder painting away. And yet. Hugo found him planting seeds in the front garden with a little girl. He stood on the other side of the picket fence for a moment, almost mesmerized by that sight. He didn’t realize that he was smiling wide until Sawyer’s head snapped up with a scowl and the smile disappeared immediately.

“Keep doing that, sweetheart,” Sawyer ruffled the kid’s sunshine blond hair. “Daddy’s got to talk to his friend for a minute.”

“I’m not going back.” was the first thing that Sawyer said to Hugo in three years.

“I don’t care if the world ends tomorrow, Totoro. I’m not ever going back there,” he said, jabbing his finger into Hugo’s chest.

“Dude, calm down. It’s just a golf tournament.”

“Listen, Hagrid, I don’t know how you got my address, but I ain’t answered your letters for a reason.”

“Please, dude! Just see it as a vacation,” Hugo pleaded. “The sea, the beach, a bit of light golfing.”

“Killer bears, monsters, maniacs, yeah yeah, I know the place. Fuck off now, I got sunflowers to plant.”

“It’s not like that anymore, dude! Sawyer, please...” Hugo cried out and grabbed onto the man’s sleeve, realizing a second too late that that might have been a mistake.

Sawyer turned to his daughter.

“Darling, can you go back inside and ask mommy if I’ve  _ got _ to go to your next PTA meeting, please?”

As soon as the kid was out of sight her father's whole demeanor changed. He opened the gate and stepped out of his neat garden, immediately punching Hugo in the stomach.

“I go by James now,” he spat at Hurley, who was curled up on the sidewalk, clutching what was sure to become a big ugly bruise. “Not Sawyer. Now leave.”

By the time Hugo was back on his feet, James had his hand on the screen door. It was clear that he thought this conversation to be done and over with.

“I know you tell her stories!” Hugo shouted behind him. “I know you tell her about the bear and the raft and the boars and the... big foot... you know what I mean. You can bring her, you can show it all to her! Well, not the bears, there aren’t any bears anymore… But you can show her the rest! So she can see it’s not just stories, it all happened.”

Sawyer froze but did not turn around.

“I’ll make sure she’s safe, I promise,” Hugo went on. “I’ll protect her, I swear. I’m like Jack now. I'm like Jacob. Just less of a dick. I can protect you all now.”

Sawyer stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

But he came, and in the second week of May that year, Hugo watched him haul his little girl out of the sub. He watched him give her a piggyback ride down the pier.

“I like the new sub. It’s nicer than the old one.” was the first thing James said back on the island after six years.

The third ever Dharma Invitational had six players. James Ford (he allowed the other players to call him Sawyer, but just for now, just on the island) got first place, beating Walter Lloyd by a hair’s breadth. Miles Straume finished third, with colorful language and a frankly unpleasant attitude. Hugo Reyes ranked fourth, far ahead Benjamin Linus and Frank Lapidus, who tied for last place.

“Well, at least I’m improving,” Ben said upon receiving his participation trophy.

*

The tournament was over. They had celebrated, they had reminisced. Lapidus had already flown away. The sun was setting on the island. Sawyer found himself in a strange mood. Sawyer found himself on the beach, stepping on a piece of jagged metal. It was  _ the _ beach, where it had all began. This was where he had escaped death against all odds, and where he had begun to change against even worse odds. 

He had just tucked Clementine in at Ben and Hugo’s house and had been walking around, unable to fall asleep. He hadn’t realized that he had walked all the way there. He examined the piece of fuselage he had stepped on. Impossible to say what exactly it had been, if it had come from the wing or a seat.

Sawyer walked on. The tents were still there, sort of. He felt like his heart was twice its usual size, threatening to suffocate him. He recognized that feeling now, he let it wash over him. Back then it may have scared him, but he had a kid now, he felt it every other day. He sat down in the sand, turned towards the tarps and bamboo poles, back to the ocean, for once.

  
  


H e ran into Miles on the way back to the barracks. He was sitting on the edge of what had once been that stupid hatch. Sawyer couldn’t quite see his face in the dark, just a few shadows in the moonlight. He sat with him. Before he could say anything, Miles spoke: “No, it’s been too long.” Sawyer nodded stiffly.

They sat there together, for moments or hours, until the night started to slowly turn to day. Then, for a second or a lifetime, they both saw something, on the other side of the crater, the shadow of a shadow. They couldn’t quite tell what, but they both saw something. Miles shivered.

*

Miles, Sawyer and Clementine left on the sub the following day.

“Daddy! You said we would see the caves!” the kid whined. 

“Aw, I’m sorry, baby. I forgot.”

Sawyer met Miles’ gaze. They understood each other. Sawyer hadn't forgotten, he had just had an eerie feeling about the caves. Not bad, just eerie.

*

Sawyer came back the following year and this time he couldn't find an excuse. He trekked to the caves with Clementine on their first day on the island. They found nothing there, except some of the stuff they had left behind, and the remnants of their old janky shower. He had expected to see that shadow of a shadow again, but no. Maybe it didn't want to scare kids, maybe that was the shadow's own greatest fear? Or maybe it was shy and didn't want to show itself to strangers? Well, Sawyer needed to get some sleep, get some water and get the hell away from that place before he lost  _ all _ his marbles. 

The fourth Dharma Invitational had six players. James Ford won again, this time with Hugo Reyes right on his heels. Walter Lloyd finished third, beating the eternal sore loser Miles Straume in the last hole. This time Frank Lapidus beat Benjamin Linus by one, but by the way he acted, you would have believed he had lost the whole thing. 

Hugo was giddy for weeks afterwards. In years past the tournament had lifted his spirits every time but this one was different. Better. He felt like himself again. He wasn't some creepy immortal eldritch creature, he was still good old Hurley. The future seemed bright. For the first time ever, he was glad to have made that decision he hadn't had a choice in making anyways. 

A few weeks after the end of the invitational, he decided to go up to the radio tower, see in what shape it was. Maybe restoring it would be a cool project that he and Walt could work on. Once at the top of the mountain, he sat down to rest for a minute. The view was breathtaking. It moved him every time. That afternoon, as he cast his eyes across the valley, he thought he saw a dark silhouette there, sitting at the top of a mountain just like he was. Actually, it's not that he  _ thought _ he saw it, he  _ knew _ he saw it, dude. He had had his doubts, but on that day he finally saw it. 

*

It was 2 years later that new participants finally entered the Dharma Invitational (6th edition). Hugo had had to go talk to Kate and Claire in person to convince them. Just like with Sawyer, he left their home with the impression that a) they had not been that happy to see him b) they would never come to the island. But at the end of April he received an email telling him that the girls would be waiting for him in Guam. He could not contain his giggle when he saw Aaron come down the escalator at the Won Pat International Airport. He had never expected the girls to bring the baby—Baby? He was like twelve and a half now!—back to the island. He couldn’t imagine what had happened, why they had decided to come in the end. 

Hugo couldn’t imagine the distress that his visit had caused in Claire. He didn’t know that Kate had hidden his letters from her and their son all these years. He couldn’t imagine the scope of the screaming match that raged in the Littleton-Austen living room that night. He hadn’t heard the “You’re not ready to go back! I was protecting you!” and the “I can protect myself! You of all people should know that!”, not even through the wall. And no one but Kate and Claire heard Kate tell Claire, in the darkness of their bedroom: “I just don’t want you to lose yourself again.” No one heard “It’s not the island that made me crazy, it’s being away from my child.” but everybody understood when they saw Aaron and his mothers race down the pier on the first day of the sixth Dharma Invitational. 

They say that babies born in the water immediately know how to swim. It’s instinct, or something like that. That was what came to Hugo’s mind on that first day. The baby—some of them still called him that and Aaron never said anything about it—reunited with the island like two drops of water becoming one. Clementine liked to stay with her dad most of the time, but the adults barely ever saw Aaron during the day. He ran around the jungle all day long. Sawyer called him “Mowgli” and “Peter Pan”. 

At night, Aaron would slip into his mothers’ bed and tell them about all the mangoes he ate, all the rivers and pools he swam into, all the colorful birds and fragile bugs he chased. In the morning, Kate and Claire would wake up to a big patch of dirt on the sheets between them and not a kid in sight. 

On the second day, while they were walking to the golf course, Ben asked them if they were not worried about their son. Why would they be? He was born on this island, wasn’t he? It wouldn’t hurt its kin. 

“Nah, I’m not worried,” Claire answered. “He was vaccinated as a baby, you know?” 

Kate’s burst of laughter broke the tension. 

It was a beautiful morning, one of those mornings that make the island seem like heaven on earth. They started on the first hole. Kate had not lost her magnificent swing. As she was preparing to putt, they all froze and Hugo, Sawyer and Kate looked at one another. They could still communicate without words:  _ You heard that too? _ Ben cleared his throat: “Just the wind, I’m sur—”. He was interrupted by the “wind” again. It was distant, it was faint, maybe they were all imagining things. But it did sound awfully like that familiar howling sound. It send chills up all of their backs. Hugo and Clementine jumped when thunder rumbled above them. It started pouring all of a sudden. 

They dropped their clubs and took off sprinting across the green and through the jungle. They didn’t know where they were going, they were just running, just like the good old days. They forgot about the howling and for a minute they were just running from the rain. Sawyer’s eyes met Kate’s and they started giggling while running, almost tripping every other step and not caring, this time. They all reconvened in the caves, as if they had decided on it. 

“What _is_ this place?” Lapidus asked once they all had the time to catch their breath. 

“The caves!” Clementine exclaimed proudly. 

Silence fell, they looked around them, some lost in memories. Lapidus was used to not understanding anything about the island by now. Miles was lost in thoughts that weren’t his own. 

“What was that?” Kate asked. 

“What was what, Freckles?” Sawyer replied.

Was it the rain on the stone? A rhythmic sound surrounded them, coming from all sides at once. It didn’t sound like water. 

“Roar!” came from the shadows and Aaron burst into the caves. He had the biggest grin on his grimy face and was soaked to the bone. 

“Wow,” the baby said. “You guys look like you’ve seen a ghost.” 

*

They were back on the green the next morning. Something had changed in their dynamic. They seemed more relaxed, more at ease with rehashing memories of their life on the island. 

“You still have that old bus?” Sawyer asked after taking a big swig of his beer. 

“Yeah,” Hugo sighed. “But we stopped using it after Ben told us he killed his dad in that bus.” 

“Yikes,” Kate said. 

“Yeah,” Ben said with an apologetic grimace. 

“I mean, at one point I’m gonna have to learn to drive,” Walt chimed in. “And it’s the only car we have. So… I’m not looking forward to that.” 

At noon, they walked to the tree line and sat down in the shade to eat. It was starting to get really hot, the mood was mellow. Walt was telling them about this online university he was attending when a cool breeze blew out of the jungle. They all stopped talking to enjoy it. The breeze died down, they looked at one another in silence. There were indeed good times on the island, and this was one of them. 

“Dude,” Hugo said. 

They all followed his gaze. He was looking at the makeshift flag marking the hole, fifty yards away. There was someone there. Lapidus looked around, they were all there, and the figure in the distance was too big to be Aaron. The others didn’t need to check, they knew it wasn’t one of them. The sun was shining high and hot, it had been all morning, but there was a man, soaking wet, next to the flag. He turned around and smiled. Claire smiled back. She stood up and waved. The man waved back. She took a step toward him and he vanished in a plume of black smoke. 

“Fuck me,” Sawyer breathed out. “Tell me y’all saw that too.” 

“Yeah, dude,” Hugo said. 

Sawyer turned to Hugo in pure incredulity. 

“You knew, didn’t you?” he cried out. “And you didn’t tell us?”

“I wasn’t  _ sure _ sure yet,” Hugo explained.

“ _ Sure _ sure?” Sawyer scoffed. “That was Jack, right? What? So  _ he  _ is the monster now? Why am I the only one who’s freaked out by that?” 

“I mean,” Miles deadpanned. “I see dead people all the time, man.” 

“What in—” Sawyer was interrupted by Claire. 

“It’s not that dramatic,” she said. “You can calm down.” 

“Wh—” he was interrupted by Walt. 

“He’s not evil or anything. It’s just Jack.” 

*

It took them just one more day to fall into old rhythms. The routine was different, they weren’t running around hunting or investigating. It was like a Dharma vacation, and they hadn’t had one in forty years, Miles joked. They still golfed in the mornings but it was just an excuse now, they just wanted to be together. 

They were all swimming together at the old beach camp when Kate realized that she had that feeling again, the one that told her that leaving the island might be a mistake. Lapidus had already flown away to some other adventure. Sawyer knew Miles like a brother and Hugo knew Ben like an oddly close work friend, she imagined that this was what extended family reunions felt like. Aaron had decided to join them that day, and was showing Claire how long he could hold his breath under water. Clementine had found an old Dharma beach ball, and Walt, Miles and Sawyer were weirdly captivated by whatever game she had come up with for them. Hugo and Kate were lounging together in the water, reminiscing and just sitting in comfortable silence. Ben was sitting in the sand, reading a outrageously thick book under a parasol. 

A breeze shook the treeline. It was the softest sound, but they all turned to it like someone had shouted their names across an empty room. The trees shook again, tarps flapped in the wind. A mechanical rhythm and a burst of sound—not a roar, not a sigh, but something in between. Jack walked out onto the beach. Same black hair, same side part, same soaked blue t-shirt, same old ratty shoes. He has a bloody nose and his smile is tentative. He walks closer to the waves and stops. Some know he can’t go into the water, the others feel it. He ducks his head, as if embarrassed that all his friends are staring at him. They can’t help but staring: it’s Jack. 

He looks at them, one after the other, and when he opens his mouth, Hugo thinks for a second that a big howl is gonna come out of it, but he closes it immediately. He tries again, and what comes out is “Hi!” 

He isn’t like he used to be. Or is he? It’s more complicated than that, they discover as they talk. He did used to keep his heart guarded, so it doesn’t surprise them that he can be as laconic now as he was then. He tells them—it tells them?—that it took him a while to come back to himself, and to understand what he was. He confesses that he’s been watching them—it’s his job, to watch over the island—but he didn’t want to approach them before being sure of who he is. This year he wanted to talk to them, he couldn’t miss his chance to— 

They know that he means “his chance to see Kate, to talk to Kate, to adore her once again”. As the sun sets, and they all walk back to the barracks, he may tell her “I love you” again, but I don’t know, no one hears that but them. 

He sits with them at the dinner table. He doesn’t eat but he isn’t all wet anymore either, and his nose has stopped bleeding.

*

“He’s a security system,” Hugo always says. “But he’s mostly just Jack.” 

They all meet to play golf once a year and they stay together longer and longer every year. 

**Author's Note:**

> Jack becoming the monster is also not my idea, but I guess if you're in the Lost fandom you know that. (I don't know who I could credit with this interpretation.)


End file.
